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Ljubljana, Slovenia - Between 17th and 18th May, DCAF, the George C. Marshall Centre and the Slovenian Ministry of the Interior-Police supported a regional conference on CT and P/CVE, bringing together senior policy-makers and expert practitioners from law enforcement, national coordination bodies and NGOs, joined by academia and researchers, EU institutions and regional and international actors, incl. DCAF Ljubljana and the WBCTi Chairmanship. Mr Andrej Rupnik, deputy director of DCAF Ljubljana, welcomed the participants and emphasised the relevance of the WB Counter-Terrorism initiative (WBCTi), where DCAF continues its important work as the "first among equals", and is preparing a new multi-annual Integrated Plan of Action together with all partners.

The event involved discussions on existing regional cooperation in the law enforcement dimension of CT, regional cooperation networks on P/CVE, featured national presentations on CVE inter-agency mechanisms in Albania and Kosovo*; on part of academia and intelligence, the situation of the terrorism-related phenomena and threats in BiH was presented as well as the implications of terrorism and VE emanating from the WB as assessed by Slovenia and Croatia.

The event served to transfer some good European practices, where a lot of emphasis was placed on those P/CVE projects that have seen positive developments at the local community levels. Such efforts in the WB have been supported by several EU, 3rd state and international donors, but are lacking financial sustainability. The need for greater inclusion of civil society was recognised, as well as the dire need to continue in a coordinated way - by preventing duplications of donor assistance as enabled by the WBCTi. Participants identified concrete needs and priorities in areas of CT and P/ CVE, that will serve as a basis for the further WBCTi needs assessment before outlining future coordinated actions within the iPA 2018-2020.